Today we attended the 2nd annual Tomahawk Tromp Trail Race with Skill Stations (including sling shot, .22 rifle, archery, spear chunking, knife and tomahawk throwing, swamp crossings and pond swimming, mud pit scaling, bear crawling, and monkey bars), as a family team (cue matching shirts, OF COURSE - you know me!)
I know, I know... We took our 5 and 6 year olds through 3.5 miles of off-road running in August's peak summer heat and humidity, AND we let them handle a wide variety of WEAPONS for the first time ever (not that mama or daddy have a wealth of experience with any of the aforementioned weapons either...) Was I nervous? Heck yeah. Was it a recipe for disaster? No way. We declined to do this event last year because we figured 4-years-old was just too young (and we never could have convinced Cora to go 3 miles back then), and Jay was busy gearing up to run the 10K at the GatorBait Triathlon last August anyway (we try not to do more than one race per month, for both financial and logistical reasons - the kids, and Jay, can only take so many running events per year...), but after some friends of ours competed as a family team last year and loved it, we decided to make the trek up to Eagle Lake this morning and have ourselves an adventure!
Why yes, Will IS taller than James now. After this first shot James stood on his tip-toes...
It turned out to be a very family friendly event and there were LOTS of kids there (even little kids, like ours). Each skill station was manned by a pair of knowledgeable people (to instruct the kids, and those of us unfamiliar with proper spear chucking or knife throwing technique, etc.), as well as a pair of Boy Scouts (who were in charge of recording your number of successful shots on your race bib).
And finally, for your viewing pleasure, some mud squishing and puddle jumping and stomping fun!
The kids all liked the archery station the best, and the boys tolerated the mud hills and swamp wade far better than Cora (she was fine while we did them, but complained about being dirty and itchy afterward). Christina was the only one of us to get a knife into the target, I was the only one to chuck a spear into the hay bale, and Jay was the only one to accurately hit the rifle targets (he hit all 3!)
The kids didn't understand why we wanted a picture of our muddy shoes. Amateurs.
This event was seriously SO MUCH FUN! We'll definitely be doing it again next year!
He was so proud to hit the target all 3 tries!
Cora celebrated her 3 hits loudly too. The other racers waiting in line for us were both patient and nice (they all cheered on our kiddos too, thankfully!)
We're like a pair of Hunger Games and Walking Dead pros, eh?...
...I actually teased the tomahawk station guys that the only reason my ax hit the target was because I've been in training by watching Survivor for all these years...
(I didn't hit a single rifle target... apparently I do not follow sighting direction very well. Something about a diamond and a birthday cake...)
That was the end of the swamp wade (behind those people behind us was a section of 40" deep water - Cora's head was barely bobbing along as she swam it while holding my hand - a bit hard for her 44-45" self!) and James splashed his way out!
Jay and I carried James and Cora on our backs for the pond swim. It's not that they couldn't do it, but we were concerned with keeping their heads above water (call us paranoid, but there have been far too many cases of water-born disease in our neck of the South lately...)
The awards were passed out from the back of Tara's wildlife tour bus:
And the kids enjoyed some celebratory trail mix provided by Christina (she always comes prepared - like a Girl Scout!)
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